Tubular rivet and method of making the same



(No Model.)

H. s. REYNOLDS.. TUBULAR EI-VBT AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME. No. 459,65o.

Patented Sept. 15, 1891.

UNITED STATES ATENT FFICE.

HENRY S. REYNOLDS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

TUBULAR RIVET AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent Ne. 459,(550, dated September 15, 1891.

Application filed June 8, 1891. Serial No. 395,4:44. (No model.)

To all whom it may aoncrn Be it known that I, HENRY S. REYNOLDS, of Brooklyn, Kings County, State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Tubular Rivet and Method of Making the Same, of which the following is a specification.

To a better understanling of my invention, which relates to the production of that type of rivet known as solidheaded tubular rivet, I premise my description of the same with a brief statement of what, so far as I am informed, is the prior state of the art in this general line of invention. Solid-headed tubular rivets are of course old. Insomeinstances the rivet has been made from a piece of wire or wire rod drilled out for a portion of its length to provide a tubular shank and having its undrilled or solid portion upset or swaged into a solid head. In other instances it has been made from a piece of metal by a combined drawing and upsetting process. It has also been essayed to make the rivet of sheet metal, and for this purpose it has been proposed to work the sheet metal in various ways, principally by striking up a previously-prepared sheet-metal blank and then shaping the head and at times capping it. The :rivet thus produced sometimes has had only one longitudinal seam in its tubular shank and sometimes t has had two or more seams, which have divided the shank up into sections. It has also been proposed to make a tubular rivet by coiling the strip of metal onto itself. I have more particular reference in this instance to Wootens expired patent, granted in the year 1867 and reissued September 9, 1873, No. 5,567; but in the case of this patented device, while the whole strip of blank was coiled, yet the head of the rivet was not solid, but was annular, the rivet being in effect a tube of uniform diameter throughout open at both ends and having upon its periphery at one end an annular projection or fiange which formed the head. In the only other instance of which I have knowledge in which the sheet metal could be said to be coiled or bent upon itself to form a tube (I have reference now to Brays patent, No. 256,l17, of April 11, 1882) the coiling or bending 'for this purpose was confined to that portion of the blank which formed the tubular shank of the rivet, and that portion ofthe blank which formed the head was not thus coiled or bent, but after the formation of the shank was bent over and secured as acapto the flanged or fiared endof the tube,being united thereto by a lap-joint.

The tubular solid-headed rivet in which my invention is comprised is a sheet-metal rivet, in which the solid head is integral with the tubular shank. It is made by' coiling the sheetmetal onto itself throughout its length, both that portion intended for the head and that portion intended for the shank, and to this extent it resembles the Wooten patented rivet; but, unlike the latter, the head is not annular and openbut is solid and closed,just as it is in the most approved form of tubular rivet made from solid wire rod by the drlling v and u psettin g operation first abovereferred to.

My rivetis formed from a sheet-metal blank having onthat edge of the head portion thereof which is first bent or coiled a tongue or extension. lVhen the coiling operation takes place, the tongue is first coiled onto itself, so that by the time the main body of the blank commences to be coiled there will be formed by the strip or tongue a practically solid cylinder, which forms a filling for and in fact fills that portion of the coiled blank which forms the head,- the blank in this condition resembling a cyliuder which is tubular for that portion of its length intended for the shank and filled or plugged for that portion of its length intended for the head. Then by swaging the head portion of the coiled blank I obtain, a solid swaged head for the rivet which is integral with the tubular shank.

To enable others to understand and use my invention, I now proceed to' more particularly deseribe it by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated the complete rivet and the several steps of the method by which it is produced.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan of a portion of the sheet-metal strip from which the blanks are cut. It is represented in the con- `dition in which it is after the blanks are cut and removed therefroin. Fig. 2 is a plan of the blank. Fig. 3 is a View of the blank partly coiled. Fig. 4 is a View of the blank completely coiled. Fig. o is a view of the IOO completed rivet. Fig. G is an enlarged section online U (i, Fig. 4. Fig. 7 is a like Section online 7 7 of Fig. (i. Fig. 8 is an enlarged axial section of the rivet, Fig. 5.

The sheet-metal blank from which the rivet is made is represented in Fig. 2.

A is the body ot' the blank, which is of a length suitable to aftord a tubular shank of the desired length, as well as a head of the proper size, and is ot' a width such that when coiled or bent into cylindrical form with its longitudinal edges brought together it will form a tube of the diameter required for the tubular shank of the rivet. On the edge a of the blank which is first rolled and for that portion of its length devoted to the head of the rivet. is the extension or tongue B, hereinbefore referred to, which is integral with the body of the blank. The blanks can be Conveniently and economically cut from a strip of sheet metal S of indefin itelength after the fashion indicated in Fig. 1, the spaces s being those left by the cutting of the blanks.

In making the rivet the first step after producing the blank is to coil the blank from that edge on which the tongue B is Situated. In this operation the tongue is first coiled tightly onto itself, so that by the time thebody of the blank comineces to be coiled the tongue will have been made into a tight coil, forming in eifect a plug or fillerof adianeterto fill what would otherwise be the tubular head portion of the coiled blank. The blank at this-stage of the operation is represented in Fig. The coiling then proceeds until the body portion of the blank is bent into tubular form with its longitudinal edges meeting, as seen in perspcetive in Fig. i and in longitudinal aXial section in Fig. 7. By this operation the blank has been brought to the slape of a cylinder of uniforin diameter, which for that portion of its length intended for the tubular shank of the rivet is hollow and for that portion of its length intended for the solid rivet-head is filled bya plugcomposed of the coiled tongueB.

The next operation is to swage the filled head portion of the blank shown in Figs. 4-,

G, and 7 into the form of the head, which operation is readily accomplished by means of suitable dies and plungers, by which this portion is by powerful pressure compressed into a solid head, which is integral with the tubular shank. This operation practically conpletes the rivet, which as thus completed is shown in Fig. 5. The rivet can then, if desired, be dipped to give it a surface coating of tin, copper, or the like, or can bejapanned or otherwise treated in the Way customary, in order to give it the preferred finish.

With respect to the material from which the blanks are cut in the first instance, I would say that I am not limited to a strip or sheet of any particularshape. I naynse, for example, scrap-tin or other sheet-metal scrap.

Having described my invention, what I claim herein as new and of my own invention s- 1. The described method of makingtnbular solid-headed rivets, consisting, essentially, in forming froni sheet metal a blank having on its body portion a filling tongue or strip, then coiling this blank into cylindrical form, the tongue being first coiled so as to form a filling for the head part of the subsequentlycoiled body portion, and finally swaging the filled portion of the coiled blank into a solid head, substantially as herenbefore set 'fortit 2. The sheet-metal blank for the production of tubular solid-headed rivets, consisting of the body portion A and the filling tongue or strip B, integral therewith, substantially as hereinbefore set fot-th.

The coiled sheet-metal rivet having a tubular shank and a solid swaged head integral with the shank, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

Signed at New York, in the County of New York and State of New York, this Blst day of May, A. D. 1891.

HENRY REYNOLDS.

XVitn esses:

E. R. KNOWLES, C. R. FERRELL. 

